Don and Betty Draper’s divorce takes a big toll on daughter Sally, who’s now on the cusp of adolescence, and she begins acting out. She’s brought home from a sleepover in the middle of the night by a friend’s mother who caught her “touching herself.” Much to Betty’s disapproval, she continues to meet the neighborhood boy, Glen Bishop, at an abandoned lot near their homes. She is moody and prone to outbursts of anger. Thanks to a kindly therapist, Sally eventually begins to better manage her anger and confusion.
While spending a night with Don in his drab Greenwich Village apartment, Sally announces she wants to live with him all the time. Don is awakened the next morning by the sounds of Sally at work in the kitchen. As he enters the living area he sees Sally emerging from the kitchen, proudly holding two plates.
“I made French toast,” she says confidently, “and there’s no shells in it.” When she suggests they watch The Today Show while they eat, it is apparent that Don’s little girl is starting to become a young woman.
As Don downs his first bite, a look of puzzlement crosses his face. Sally has mistaken a bottle of rum for Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup.
“Is that bad?” asks Sally.
“Not really,” says Don taking another bite, pleasantly surprised by the serendipitous recipe Sally has created.
Sally’s French Toast (with Rum) is based on a French toast recipe that appeared in 1001 Dairy Dishes from the Sealtest Kitchens by the National Dairy Products Corporation (1963), a company that happened to be located on Madison Avenue in New York, not far from the offices of Sterling Cooper. An individual recipe or a cookbook was a popular marketing tool in the 1960s; many companies, such as Sealtest, French’s, Bacardi, and others encouraged readers to write in for recipes or cookbooks that promoted the use of their products.
“Milk has been food and drink to mankind, a unique staple item in his diet, long before recorded history,” reads the grandiloquent preface to 1001 Dairy Dishes from the Sealtest Kitchens. It declares milk a sine qua non of civilization itself, which, it says, “became possible only after the cow and other milk-giving animals were domesticated and primitive agriculture began some eleven thousand years ago.” Be that as it may, we know there are some, perhaps even Don, who would make the same claim for rum.
FRENCH TOAST ADAPTED FROM 1001 DAIRY DISHES FROM THE SEALTEST KITCHENS (NATIONAL DAIRY PRODUCTS CORPORATION, 1963)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1⁄4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon rum
1 teaspoon maple syrup
6 slices bread
Butter, for frying
YIELD: 6 SLICES